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Brisbane Roar’s achievements this season in the A-League have not received the recognition they deserve. Brisbane has passed every challenge thrown up them this year, and with style.

First of all, hats off to Ange Postecoglou for achieving one of the greatest feats of football coaching in the modern era.

Postecoglou has taken a team from second last to first in one season. With figures of 30 games played, 18 won, 11 drawn and one lost, with points totalling 65. This includes a 25-game unbeaten streak and a goal difference of plus 32.

These figures are the type often seen in Europe from teams such as Barcelona, Manchester United or Inter Milan. But the difference is that Postecoglou has achieved this on a shoestring budget, with no particularly high profile players.

While great coaches in Europe have great players to begin with, Postecoglou has taken decent, eager, professional players and transformed them into a great side.

Many believe his name is already engraved on the coach of the year award.

The Roar have also being strong in times when many other teams had faltered. Countless coaches and players from other clubs blamed scheduling for their poor performances during the year. Brisbane Roar certainly had their fair share of tough scheduling but came out trumps in almost all situations.

This was particularly evident in week 12 and 13 of the season. Brisbane played Sydney away and drew 1-1.

Then they were off to Wellington, winning 4-1.

Then, returning to Suncorp, they smashed Adelaide 4-0 in the battle of the top two. That week proved the team’s ability and professionalism. To claim seven from a possible nine points, in a week with 5000km of travel, is a pretty special achievement.

There have been countless other moments in the season which proved the worth quality of Brisbane, here are just a few:

1. Thumping Adelaide 4-0, week 13. As previously mentioned Brisbane came into this match off a hectic week of travel and matches. In the opening stages it looked like a very tight match with Adelaide defending very well. Then Reinaldo got the breakthrough four minutes before half-time.

But in the second half Brisbane went a man down as Reinaldo was sent off. Would Brisbane hold on for 40 minutes? How about those tired legs? The answer: Ange asked for an all out assault on the Adelaide goal, scoring three goals in 12 minutes. Simply stunning.

Then Melbourne Victory stormed back into the contest with a sensational goal from Robbie Kruse, followed by a strike by Thompson and another from Kruse. The match was flipped on its head.

Most teams after leading so comfortably and letting it slip would have collapsed in a heap after going behind, but not Brisbane.

With seconds to go Michael Theoklitos claimed a ball near the edge of the box. Many claimed it was out of the box, no replays could offer a conclusive angle.

Theoklitos thumped the ball upfield, finding the noggin of Reinaldo, before McKay streaked away to net a dramatic equaliser.

It was Reinaldo’s final touch in Roar colours. Further proof of a relentless, mentally tough football side.

3. The floods. Brisbane lost their home ground right at the end of the season. This led many to question if the Roar would hang onto the lead at the top of the ladder, without their home fortress.

The Roar responded in style, with two wins at Skilled Park and another after a Fury match had to be rescheduled.

Upon their return to Suncorp, Brisbane were eager to put on a show for their adoring fans at Suncorp which included 5000 flood workers and victims.

Once again, they delivered when they needed to. With two goals showcasing their skilled shooting, and two displaying what they are famous for – delightful passing.

Sadly, despite this season of mind-blowing achievements, these actions weren’t considered good enough for The Courier Mail in Brisbane.

The morning after dismantling the Gold Coast 4-0 and holding the Premiership Plate aloft, it was a rugby league friendly match which dominated the sports news, with the Roar found several pages into the sports section.

It is a great shame that the media in Brisbane refuses to get behind a truly great sporting team.

Throughout the floods disaster there has often being talk about the Queensland spirit. The Courier Mail, however, is far from capturing such spirit. They need to have a long hard look at themselves if they are going to continue to ignore this fine bunch of Queensland heroes.

Well done to Brisbane Roar – the greatest team in Australian sporting history.

The Club Roar Awards have been run and won! Olympic Gold Medallist and all-round legend Steven Bradbury has announced who's getting a share in $10,000! Check out the winners HERE!

The Crowd Says (108) | Page 1 of Comments

bravo Brisbane, greatest team in Oz football history no doubt about that. Great way to celebrate the premiers plate, title of true champions! (Cups and playoffs are fine but secondary.)

as for the Courier Mail, yeah they “need to have a long hard look at themselves” or all u Queenslanders need to have less of a look at them. This is a print dinosaur we’re talking about after all… they need u more than u need them.

Whilst I applaud the wonderful results delivered by Brisbane Roar with some delightful football, for me, their run of “unbeaten games” will always be tainted by that moment of cheating when the Brisbane GK, Michael Theoklitos cheated and intentionally handled the ball 1 metre outside the penalty area, with MVFC leading 3-2 and less than 30 seconds of stoppage time remaining.

This cheating was more blatant and more cynical than Grosso’s theatrical dive to win a penalty at a similar critical time in Kaiserslautern and should have been condemned in the same manner as Thierry Henry’s handball that assisted in setting up a goal against Ireland.

MVFC should have been awarded a free-kick, Theoklitos should have been given a yellow card and the Brisbane team would have lost the game but would have demonstrated integrity.

What a load of ribbish Fuss, absolutely rubbish.
What was Muscat doing when the punt was kick downfield? where was the cover? I think it was terrible defending by the MV.

From a neutral point of view, BR killed MV that day, it was due to some special skills & some dodgy refereeing decisions that got MV into the game. There is no doubt player fpr player, MV has the best attacking team in the competition but BR kills MV as a team. Of course some individuals do win competitions.

I won’t “get over it” any more than I’ll ever “get over” Grosso’s theatrical fall in Kaiserslautern. Ask the Irish if they’ll ever “get over” Henry’s handball in the 2010 WCQ.

Cheating is cheating. Theoklitos cheated and he got away with it.

In the space of 34 minutes this season, MVFC managed to smash 6 goals past Brisbane and Theoklitos – no “best team of all time” would allow 6 goals to be scored in such fashion.

Brisbane are consistent, which is needed to win the League. But, it will individual brilliance that often wins the knock-out Cup competitions … half of MVFC’s team are amongst the most individually-gifted footballers in the HAL – Carlos, Mavin, Robbie, Archie, Mate.

Fuss I think you need to look beyond your bias. There is a good reason why BR ended 22 pts ahead of MV this season. Consistentcy is definately one issue, but there were many other factors.

Head to head SFC verus Brisbane this season, we lost twice 1-0 & drew 1-1. In all 3 matches we were very much the 2nd best team by a long way.
Head to Head SFC verus Melbourne, there was 2 draws & 1 lost 3-0, I felt we were the better team in the 2 draws, while Melboure were the better team in the 3-0 lost, but even that match I didn’t feel as we were just clinging on, as I did against all BR games.

Cheating is cheating. something Muscat needs to learn. Didn’t he brake Henrique’s arm in the 3 min of the game. Muscat then proceded to yell at Henrique without getting any card or punishment? This is not the only time he has done something like this, he does it every game. How many of the Victory players caused injury to other teams this season? That is the worst form of cheating in my opinion.

Correct fusss, I was at the game and Theo handled the ball outside the area and it was shown a million times on FSN that night showing he was over the line. He cheated, they drew and kept the run going.

You guys have got it all wrong. You obviously don’t know this law of the game so you shouldn’t comment on it. Theoklitos did not handle the ball outside the area. He was standing outside the area at the time but that does not matter – all that matters is where the BALL is at the time. From the best camera angle available it looks as though he was holding the ball directly above the plane of the penalty area line. If you read the FIFA laws of the game you will note that “markings on the field of play are considered to be part of the area of which they are the boundary” (or words to that effect). Therefore the whole ball must be outside the area before it is considered out. So if the ball is sitting directly over the penalty area line it is considered part of the penalty area, just like if a ball is sitting directly over the plane of the touchline it is considered inside the field of play and play continues. My guess is the referee wasn’t in the best position to see it (and the assistant could not have had a good view) so he decided he couldn’t make a conclusive decision and so played on – the correct thing to do.

And by the way, Theoklitos DID NOT cheat. He simply played to the whistle. Grosso in WC’06 cheated by intentionally acting to deceive the referee…Theoklitos in this case simply tried to keep the ball in the area (and did so successfully) and played on when the referee didn’t blow the whistle. Big difference between the two.

I agree that he did not cheet – but no one ever does if they p’play to the whistle’. Having said that – the ball was clearly over and everyone saw it. But hey, that happens in football and I only raose it to point out that there is a team that can bear Brisbane and they did it twice to any fair minded person – but only once for the record. I hope a Melbourne Brisbane final in Brisbane eventuates. Greatest A-League game ever. I have had Brisbane as my favorite fotballing team since year one when they could not his a barn door. I look forward to their visit in a footballing sense more than any other team. But they have nothing to show for their efforts relative to Melbourne – and that’s a fact.

The whole of the ball has to be inside the penalty area actually and the goalkeeper is the same as per any other player when he is outside the penalty box area, he was clearly outside but saying Brisbane Roar’s streak is tainted is a joke as well.

I’m pretty sure if you look at the replay it will show the ball sitting directly above the goal line. The referee might not have seen it hence why he didn’t make the decision to give MV a free kick. If in your opinion 10k people knew it was outside the box, good on them, but the only opinion that matters is the referees.

Goalkeeper handball outside the box is an automatic red card? I would love to know where you got that from. Pretty sure that is anything but correct.

Okay fine it’s not an automatic red card, it’s open up for interpretation whether it was deliberate or not. The way he retreated back to his box shows he realised where he was standing with the ball in his hands. It was a crucial illegal catch given the moment in the match.

Footage of all Nostro’s A-League games have been taken down but here is some audio and a still picture

I think given Nostro’s experience as a top level keeper and Mark Bosnich’s(in commentary) goalkeeping experience that they have a greater opinion on the matter than one eyed supporters that “didn’t see anything”, “inconclusive”. And the thousands of fans at the stadium that had the best view of it.

I’m liking this debate, because it’s clear that I can’t lose. Like I said earlier, it doesn’t matter where he was standing. The ball which he was carrying was directly over the plane of the penalty area line, and therefore inside the box. End of story. He retreated back into the box to give himself some room to launch the long bomb which, as we know, led to Matt McKay’s goal. Good move in my opinion.

Thanks for the link, but Nostro’s and Bosnich’s experience as top level goalkeepers is irrelevant here – it’s not a decision that is open to experience and interpretation like a foul or a positioning mistake – it’s simply whether or not the ball (again remember the BALL, not the player) is inside or outside the box. All you need is a pair of eyes (yes, I have two of them) and you can decide for yourself whether the ball was inside or outside the box. In this case it’s obvious that the ball was sitting over the top of the line.

At no point did I say that I didn’t see anything (like Merrick didn’t see Muscat’s red card tackle v Zahra) or that the replay was inconclusive. All that’s inconclusive is the vision that was available to the referee because he wasn’t in an ideal position to decide, therefore he played on. From the best camera angle available it is clear that the ball is sitting directly over the line – plain as day.

And one more thing, I can guarantee you that sitting at home here in Brisbane with the benefit of the replay, I had a much better view than 9,000 of those fans at the stadium. The notion that simply being at the ground during the game automatically means you have a better view is nothing but foolish.

Michael Culina, your eyes deceive you as you are looking at a 2D image and have no depth perception. The whole ball was outside the box. Unfortunately you lost the debate and I suggest you find some footage if you cannot interpret a 2D image. 🙂

Even if the ball was over the line. It wasn’t over the line by such a great margin that it would have been inconceivable for the goalkeeper to definitely know whether it was over the line or not and hence intentionally cheat. It could simply have been a case of the keeper misjudging the location of the ball rather than the keeper knew the ball was outside the box but grabbed it nevertheless.

I wouldn’t say Theoklitos cheated. He either made a very bad decision, which came off, or he decided to try his luck and try and convince the ref the ball was still in the box.
So, what did he do wrong? Nothing.

It was the ref’s decision not to award a pen. Blame the ref if you think the ball was outside the box.
Theoklitos did not cheat. He cheated as much as a bloke who handballs accidentally inside the box and gets away with it – I seem to recall that happening in at least one Victory game this season.

Fuss, I think you need your eyes checked before I do because earlier you said the ball/Theoklitos was a metre outside the box…this is quite simply not the case. As I have raved on and on about, it does not matter where the player is – all that matters is the ball – it’s not rugby league where the ball is considered to be in touch if the player carrying it steps over the line.

Guys, there is no way that on the replay anybody can say that the WHOLE of the ball is outside the WHOLE of the penalty area line. That’s what is required for the ball to be considered “outside” the penalty area. In other words, there should be *line*, *daylight*, *ball*. And there is no view at all which shows this. I agree it was close, and the referee may have not seen it, but whether he did or not we will never know and it turned out to be the correct outcome. Case closed. If somebody can give me a still shot with solid lines showing me that the ball was at any point outside the plane of the entirety of the goal line I will happily eat my words. But this is impossible.

Yet again, another case of Melbourne fans showing how great their selective memory abilities are…

So no comment on the 2 dodgy/outright wrong calls by the officials which gifted Melbourne 2 goals which at the time took the score from 0-2 down, to 2-2 a piece??

(1) handball against Barbarouses (when there was no handball). The resulting free-kick to Melbourne went out for a corner, from which Kruse scored.
(2) A clean tackle by Brattan ruled as a foul just outside the box, which resulted in Kurse’s second goal.

So by all means whinge about the Theoklitos incident, that the officials stuffed up or whatever, but if you do, pleas try to remember Melbourne’s 2 goals which where results from very dodgy decisions going their way.

The reason I am so upset, is the same reason I was so upset sitting in the stands of the Fritz-Walter Stadion when Grosso fell over – the timing of the incident meant there was no recourse available.

In Kaiserslautern, Totti scored the penalty and the final whistle blew at the kick-off; exactly the same thing happened with the Brisbane goal.

If Grosso had gone down in the 1st half, or even with 10 minutes to go I would have been upset but at least there was time to get back in the game.

If Theo had handled in the 1st half or with 10 minutes to play, do you honestly think we’d care as much? Heck, we’d scored 3 goals in the space of 15 minutes – from 63′ to 77′ of the match – if we had another 5 minutes I have no doubt MVFC would have scored 1 … perhaps, even 2 more goals.

Brisbane Roar best football team in Oz history, just as Nordster said. But best team in Aussie sporting history? That’s a pretty contentious claim. I’d argue the great St George Dragons team ’56-’66 is the greatest team in Aus sporting history.

Its hard to compare between sports … but considering excelling at football on the world stage is the greatest challenge in Australian sporting history … I’d give them the ‘greatest in Oz sport’ tag if they take this form to the ACL and win the thing. But can they sustain it over our long, long, long off season, and then into March 2012 for Asia?

I’m starting to wonder what Postecoglou can do with the Socceroos. As much as I enjoyed our Asian Cup run, there was too many route one balls to Cahill’s head to the point of being too predictable – something you don’t see with the Roar. Holger is a fool if he is not taking notice of what’s happening at Brisbane.

As for the Courier Mail, I think you’ll find the same with equivalent News Ltd owned paper in Melbourne and Sydney. Whether we like it or not, football is still a minority code and these are newspapers for the masses. Nobody else gives a hoot about the A league at my workplace in Melbourne for instance, they’re all talking about the Micky Mouse pre-season AFL games.